The transposon was chosen by the International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Research for enabling stable gene transfer in vertebrates.

The International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology
Protocols and Research (ISMCBBPR) has named “Sleeping
Beauty” (SB)/transposase SB100X as Molecule of the Year 2009 as
part of its annual competition.

According to the ISMCBBPR, Sleeping Beauty was chosen by voters because
researchers have demonstrated its ability to enable robust, stable gene
transfer in vertebrates. The synthetic transposon received the top honor
over 14 other nominees, including runners-up sarcosine,
human
occludin protein, and mina.
Each nominated molecule was featured during the past year in a peer-reviewed
research paper that described the protocol used to decipher its role.

SB, when combined with a transposase, mediates the stable integration and
long-term expression of a gene of interest. A team of researchers—from the
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin-Buch and the Catholic
University of Leuven, Belgium—demonstrated that SB/SB100X efficiently
mediated gene transfer in human CD34+ cells enriched in hematopoietic stem
or progenitor cells. The novel transposase was described in the June 2009 Nature
Genetics paper, “Molecular evolution of a novel hyperactive Sleeping
Beauty transposase enables robust stable gene transfer in
vertebrates.”According to the researchers, SB/SB100X has the potential to
improve current transfection methods used in functional genomics and gene
therapy.

“The synthetic transposon ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and the corresponding hyperactive
transposase SB100X bring about a revolutionary technology platform for
genetic engineering in vertebrates,” the ISMCBBPR web site reads. “This
molecule holds great promise for gene therapy as it addresses a major hurdle
in gene therapeutic applications, especially those revealed by viral
transduction approaches [and] site-specific integration.”

Seven presidents of international molecular and cellular biology and
biotechnology organizations judged the competition. The judges considered
each molecule’s potential for future contribution to biology or medical
research.